FLAG!
I am completely onboard with this. Completely. My grandfather built his house in the '70s and I have always regarded it as a major personal victory. I would love the opportunity to do that. We continually talk about leaving California at some point and we are discussing where we'd like to go. The idea of buying some land soon and then starting in on a modest house later is on the table for sure. I would love to find "some property" - a few acres maybe - in BFE with a house we could live in while I build a house we could die in. That's a dream for me, for real.
We have the benefit of a really old house, before a lot of the troublesome codes were in place. I find a lot of stuff that just wouldn't stand these days. Things are also different in areas with denser housing - things that are no problem in my neighborhood would be big issues downtown.
My grandfather was a carpenter his whole life and I benefit some from having seen (and played with) his work. I think my biggest handicap right now is simply not being aware of the tools and techniques that can simplify tasks for me. I see A Solution and I tend to be myopic about it simply because I don't have a lot of exposure to help me think differently. I struggled with what to do with that closet for three years until finally the obvious, simple solution hit me. And then it turned out that was a dumb solution, and there was a yet more-elegant solution! I wish I could explain the convoluted crap I'd come up with previously. I just need to pay more attention to these things in my life so I can incorporate techniques into my thought process.
We did a lot of projects with wood this year, and I'm looking forwards to more. My short-term goal is building a couch, but I'm stalled out primarily by the upholstery part. I don't think I have the aptitude for that at all.
Hey, I learned how to sew for the exact purpose of doing upholstery for my own sofa and perhaps drapery! Haven't done any of that that yet, just a few pillow cases!
If I can do it, surely you can too! It's always fun to learn new skillz!!!
I've done some repair work, but I'm leery about doing something like that on the scale of a whole sofa. There is a lot of technique involved in proper sizing and assembly and I don't want something like a sofa coming apart due to poor workmanship. If I could watch someone do it a few times or even if I had someone to call for guidance I'd feel better about it, but I don't have those things. For smaller items like seat cushions, drapes, or pillowcases I can always lean on my mom as she is quite good with a sewing machine, but for bigger, heavier wear items I'm intimidated. I think I don't have an adequately developed sense of art. Where it's measurements and mechanical relationships I'm pretty good, but that's the extent of my ability. This past weekend I made some "stands" to keep some industrial furniture off the wood floors and I sanded the edges down into a nice shape and I was really proud of myself. That's how bad I am with aesthetics.
Also this weekend, my house celebrated all the time & effort I put into it by failing the garbage disposal. What I think is a gallon or two of used water ended up collecting under the sink. I didn't notice it until it overflowed the cabinet and left a puddle on the floor. When it rains it pours, literally. I spent the weekend carving out the ruined particle board under the sink and replacing it, the disposal, and the faucet for good measure. The upside is that while the cabinet was apart I took a piece of it to Ace Hardware and was able to very closely match the stain on the wood. After fixing everything, we restained the cabinets. I believe they were originally installed in the early '70s (the date on the sink is 3/20/70) and they sorely needed it. Huge improvement. The grout is still old and shitty, but the kitchen at least doesn't look like it's falling apart now. Also, now that I have a matching stain I can set about fixing the weird-ass stove issue. I'll post a picture later - I think it's a good example of what happens when a house doesn't change ownership very often.
Edit: I will mention that the couch I want to make is leather, or some other similar material, not cloth. If it was cloth I might tackle it. But leather is a whole different animal!
Last edited by thesameguy; May 23rd, 2016 at 12:16 PM.
Edit: I found a before picture:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resi...nt=photo%2cjpg
My under-sink repair:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resi...nt=photo%2cjpg
This is definitely one of the grossest jobs I've had to do yet. Replacing 45 year old particle board that has been damp from time to time and punctuated by a garbage disposal failure is wretched. I did get some practice making plunge cuts with a jigsaw though, so that was nice. Although it's money I'd probably rather have, I'm also happy to have a brand-new garbage disposal. It's so quiet I leave it running all the time!
This cabinet floor was originally installed from the back and glued into place, so removal and reinstallation took some careful disassembly of the cabinet front and removal of a fair amount of plumbing. But I think it worked out - it's a good repair!
Here are our old ghetto cabinets - ain't nothing like Swervo's, I'll tell you what:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resi...nt=photo%2cjpg
The one on the right had damage from extensive sun exposure - peeling poly and faded stain and has been re-stained. The one on the left lives in the shade and is in as good as shape as you can expect from its age. The stain is an *excellent* match. Really happy with the result - now instead of old and crappy they look new and crappy. I can live with that for a while!
I also finished my speaker rehab. The replacement Tymphany speakers fit very well. I did have to do some work with wood filler and black Rustoleum (so ghetto) since the factory woofers were flush mount and the replacements are surface. From a distance, you can't tell:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resi...nt=photo%2cjpg
Up close, you can:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resi...nt=photo%2cjpg
But, they'll be installed up on a wall at the back of the garage where probably nobody will ever get that close to them. It'll be our little secret.
I broke them in a bit last night and they sound quite good. Maybe not as good as the originals, but I wasn't listening to speakers critically in 1990. Plenty good for the garage. Now I just need to figure out a way to mount them to the walls, run speaker cable into the workshop where the receiver will be, and build some sort of shelf or enclosure for the receiver to avoid losing work surface. Very excited about this!
(Speaker rehab was not cost-effective - the replacement drivers were $25ea, or $100. For the same money I could have just bought some good enough garage speakers. But, whatever, it was a fun experiment. )
Last edited by thesameguy; May 24th, 2016 at 03:06 PM.
'tis a fine fence, but sure it 'tis no pool, English.
And I will never, ever do chain link again.
EDIT: then again, I did it with a cumalong and a pry bar instead of the "right" tool, and dug the post holes by hand, because fuck augers, amirite?
Last edited by tigeraid; May 27th, 2016 at 10:00 AM.
Damn, I'm very disappointed that I can't find any pictures of myself running the truck-mounted augering/coring rig on survey last summer.
-Formerly Stabulator
Man, that's a lot of hand-dug post holes.